Churches and charity band together to help with debt

Several local congregations in Crawley are so concerned with the financial worries of the local community they have decided to work together and partner with a charity to offer debt counselling.

Members of the churches wanted to better serve people living in hardship so they got in touch with UK debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) and plan to offer the new, free service from March 2015.

The Crawley Debt Centre will be launched on Sunday March 8, 7pm at St Andrews Church, Furnace Green when local MP Henry Smith will be in attendance.

New Debt Centre Manager David Dickson said: “Money worries are among the worst because often people feel they are to blame for their debts getting out of control and so they struggle on rather than seeking help.

“This can make people feel very isolated, giving them sleepless nights and making them fearful of the phone and post.

“Sometimes those people have made mistakes – and haven’t we all - but very often they have been driven into debt by suffering from one or two of life’s unexpected happenings like redundancy, relationship breakdown or coping with illness in the family.

“We are now in the process of putting volunteers through training with CAP to offer a face-to-face, tried-and-tested professional service which will see people escape that debt trap and get their lives back on track.”

CAP has more than 270 church-based debt help centres across the UK offering an award-winning free service to people regardless of their age, gender, background or faith. The charity looks set to open a raft of new centres in 2015 in regions around the UK in its campaign to help as many people as possible.